


(Stay) to Watch Me Burn

by EthelPhantom



Series: Ethel's Whumptober 2020 [2]
Category: Constantine (TV), DCU, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst and Tragedy, F/M, Fire, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:33:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27025105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EthelPhantom/pseuds/EthelPhantom
Summary: Once upon a time, they had beenhappy.Happy,like strawberries dipped in chocolate and kittens falling asleep on your lap and warmth of the fireplace embracing you while you wrapped a blanket around yourself in a dark, cold autumn night, not to mention cups of tea of just right temperature, and lonely nights spent with another lonely soul, which made it easier. Less lonely.That was the sort of happy they had once been. That was the sort of happy they had been, the sort of happy they had imagined they could be able to maintain even if things did not go as well all of the time.
Relationships: John Constantine/Kagami Tsurugi
Series: Ethel's Whumptober 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1954351
Comments: 6
Kudos: 5





	(Stay) to Watch Me Burn

**Author's Note:**

> I have no excuses.

“It  _ always  _ comes back to this with you, doesn’t it.”

It wasn’t… It wasn’t really a question to begin with, now was it? 

...It never had been.

* * *

Once upon a time, they had been  _ happy. _

_ Happy,  _ like strawberries dipped in chocolate and kittens falling asleep on your lap and warmth of the fireplace embracing you while you wrapped a blanket around yourself in a dark, cold autumn night, not to mention cups of tea of just right temperature, and lonely nights spent with another lonely soul, which made it easier. Less lonely.

That was the sort of happy they had once been. That was the sort of happy they had been, the sort of happy they had imagined they could be able to maintain even if things did not go as well all of the time. 

Kagami and John had met while he had been on a case and ended up in a burning house. She had been around for a business meeting as she had taken over her friend’s company when he expressed no interest in keeping it but wanted someone trustworthy to buy it — and that was how Tsurugi Kagami had become the owner and the CEO of  _ Gabriel,  _ her head designer another friend of hers, Marinette Dupain-Cheng-Grayson. Marinette had met her husband through Kagami, actually, as Kagami had sent Marinette to Gotham for a meeting she herself couldn’t attend but trusted her friend to be able to take care of it. It had gone wonderfully.

...That meeting Kagami had not been able to attend had actually been the one she had missed because she had another meeting in the city she met John Constantine in and helped him away from the fire. They had initially thought they would not meet again after it, but because they talked a little too much during those couple days, they, surprisingly, kept in touch.    


And when Kagami had to figure out how to get rid of a rather…  _ demonic  _ problem at the fashion company, the first person she even thought of to call was the demonologist and petty dabbler of dark arts called John Constantine. Obviously. 

Things had seemed like they could go well, after that. They both wished things would, at the very least, but it was difficult, at times. They still managed, somehow. They also fought more than once — in fact, fights were a regular, weekly occurrence —, but they both thought that it was  _ fine,  _ as long as they made up eventually and continued on. Forcing themselves to forget. Because forcing themselves to forget was the best way to deal with it all. 

And somehow, Kagami ended up being dragged into his cases every now and then. It wasn’t too bad, she didn’t mind too much, but it did take away from her time to work anyway. 

John always kept her safe. 

Kagami acted as his common sense. 

It worked well for them.

...Until now. 

Kagami was screaming and crying as flames licked her skin and her clothes caught on fire. She was trapped under a burning pile of wood and scorching stone, unable to escape. The smoke was too thick, there was too much of it, and John could not speak his words without coughing. He could not save her.  _ His magic would not work well enough.  _

The words Kagami spoke were bitter, biting, sharp. It was certain that should words be able to kill, should tones be able to take lives by taking over someone’s oxygen or by piercing someone’s lungs, John would be dead now. Dead by his own lover. 

It wasn’t too surprising, really. They had both been expecting betrayal since the very beginning even if they didn’t want to admit it to anyone, not their friends, not their enemies, not each other, and especially  _ not themselves. _

Tears flowed down her face as she glared at John with wide, angry gaze, and John couldn’t do anything but watch as more and more of her clothes took on the flames.

“It  _ always  _ comes back to this with you, doesn’t it.”

It wasn’t… It wasn’t really a question to begin with, now was it? 

...It never had been.

Kagami had never been the one to phrase her questions as questions, and her statements were framed as questions far too often. This was one of the times she did, and it was one of the few times John understood it correctly as such. 

“I’m sorry, Luv,” John told her, piles of wood from the ceiling falling and crashing down between them. Smoke obscured their vision of each other, and Kagami couldn’t help but curl in on herself at his words, sobbing. John could barely hear the quiet tears she shed over the crackling of the fire. 

“I love you, Kagami. I’m sorry.” 

Those words hurt, but they were comforting, in ways. That he had not meant for her to end up here. Of course he hadn’t, and she knew it, but she still felt betrayed. She was sure he, too, felt betrayed because of her words. _Stay, please, stay and watch me ~~burn~~ ~~survive~~ ~~die~~ something. I do not wish to be alone._   


Their relationship had always been doomed to perish in the fire, hadn’t it? 

Of course it had.    
  
It always had. 

At least they would not be alone.

“I love y—” she began, but then she heard a crack just above her and looked upwards, eyes widening and mouth opening in a mute scream as she was buried under fire and flames.

John yelled, his lungs filling up with smoke, and he began coughing. He ran into the fire, as close to the place he’d last seen Kagami in, and fell on his knees. He was afraid of death, he didn’t want to die — because there was no way he would not end in Hell for all eternity — but he did not want to live, either. 

And because he did not want to live…

_ Flames caught on his coat and took over it, and John could feel the fire on his skin. It burnt. It  _ **_burnt._ ** _ He could feel his skin peeling off, his clothes turning to ash, and as he looked at his hands, they were bleeding heavily. Blood wasn’t new, but this was a new way for it to happen.  _

_ Eventually, the toxic fumes stole his consciousness, and he fell upon the burning debris near his lover. _

He let the world take away his life. 

**Author's Note:**

> Please do leave kudos and comment, I would love to know what you thought of this! <3


End file.
